Food deliveries cut to 1 day because Norwich doesn't fund Meals on Wheels

Tuesday

Oct 8, 2013 at 5:50 PMOct 9, 2013 at 12:16 AM

Adam Benson

NORWICH — Five days a week, low-income Norwich senior Stan Dembrowski can rely on having a fresh-cooked meal.

The 73-year-old is one of 117 city residents who receives food through Meals on Wheels, administered locally through Thames Valley Council for Community Action.

"It's great for me," Dembrowski said Tuesday while sitting at his kitchen table in the AHEPA 110 apartments on Hamilton Avenue, a steaming-hot lunch of orange ham in front of him.

By this time next week, Dembrowski will consider himself one of the lucky ones.

Starting Tuesday, 63 percent — or 74 — of Norwich's Meals on Wheels recipients will see their deliveries drop from four days a week to just one, unless city officials can plug an $18,602 programming shortfall to finance the program through the fiscal year.

"Current funding does not exist in our adopted budget to provide for this program," City Manager Alan Bergren told aldermen Monday night. "We are exploring other funding sources to make up for at least four days of deliveries each week."

The majority of towns, including Plainfield, Killingly, Windham and Montville, will be cut to a two-day-per-week schedule, which is being phased in during a month-long period that started Oct. 1.

Because TVCCA's meal program depends on contributions from benefiting towns, those communities that give the least had their service schedule cut back the most. Norwich gives nothing, making it the obvious target for rollbacks.

Grills said Norwich is the only TVCCA community that will see once-weekly service.

"What do I tell the other towns that are actually giving us money? I just can't do it," Grills said. "Norwich gives us nothing, and that's what it came down to."

Norwich Meals on Wheels recipients whose drivers are TVCCA volunteers won't be affected by the reduction, Grills said. But the organization is laying off six drivers. The people on those routes who will see their deliveries shrink.

Alderman Tucker Braddock Jr. said that fact was "embarrassing," and urged his fellow aldermen to watch out for needy people in their neighborhoods.

"It is kind embarrassing for a city of our size to contribute zero," he said.

Alderman Mark Bettencourt, whose wife is TVCCA's Meals on Wheels program coordinator, said he would recuse himself if a funding request comes before the body.

But he was vocal in his support of the service — as was mayoral candidate and social worker Deb Hinchey.

"There is not a better use, if you're going to spend your money, than to feed your seniors. It's a basic human need," Bettencourt said.

Dembrowski, whose food delivery will not be affected said he is grateful for his situation.

"One way or another I could manage because I have family, but there are people who rely on it and I don't know what they would do," he said.

Hinchey agreed.

"The cuts that happened to Meals on Wheels are devastating to the people who consume this food," she said. "It is about checks on their welfare and their safety."